Chapter 5: The Heart of the Matter


Finnian Mertens snuck through the back alleys of London that afternoon with a wax paper sack he had surreptitiously covered in dark leather under his coat. Hiding a cow's heart through London was not his idea of a fun time but Bonnibel had asked him for a favor and he couldn't really deny the Princess anything. He finally arrived at the townhouse the French royals were staying in and stood in front of the sentinels guarding the gate.

The cow heart was still fresh and felt warm in his coat pockets or, perhaps it was the warmth of his body he felt reflected in the flesh of the heart. His palms were sweaty due to the nervousness of carting the inexplicable organ in his coat. Standing in front of the guards, who were safekeeping the visiting French Royals while hiding the cow heart just made him more nervous.

Yet, as Bonnibel had told him once, true bravery was most exhibited when one acted despite their doubts and in the face of their fears.

The young boy was definitely nervous and, although the guards truly frightened him, he pushed through. The guards on duty, thankfully, recognized him as one of the houseboys on duty and let him in without much question. Finn quickly made his way to the greenhouse on the premises.

Princess Bonnibel Boule De Gomme had managed to fool the entirety of her new household. If anyone poked their heads into the greenhouse, the entire room would be covered in flowers and roses, as expected. The princess had professed a love of horticulture on her arrival. Since she spent so much time in the greenhouse, and as there was an abundance of flowers in the facility, no one questioned her being there so often.

No one ever ventured further into the greenhouse and if they had, they would have found the trunk.

Princess Bonnibel had arrived with it and, on her first day had asked that Finnian Mertens specifically haul the trunk into the greenhouse.

"If you could, s'il vous plait." She had asked with her dulcet voice.

"They are supplies." She explained. "For the garden."

Finn had gladly done as she asked and pulled the trunk inside. As soon as he had, the Princess promptly asked that he leave.

"I prefer to do my gardening in private." She had said with a shy smile.

But as the days wore on, being the curious boy that he was, Finn started to wonder about why the Princess would need supplies for gardening specifically from that trunk. Finn had always been interested in plants, and had often wished to be a gardener himself. Perhaps the Princess had special supplies in the trunk?

He decided that he would check the trunk himself and risk a beating from Mr. Pepper, the butler. He could not spend another second in the new house without knowing what special gardening tools the Princess kept. Perhaps she was a special breeder of plants? French roses probably needed to be groomed with only French tools.

And so began his quest to look inside the trunk.

Finn waited several days. He figured the best thing to do would be to approach the trunk on a day when the Princess would be so busy, that she would have no time to come to the greenhouse.

Yet, he soon found that regardless of how busy she was during the day, the Princess would find a moment to go into the greenhouse. She would go so often that it became nearly impossible for him to sneak inside at all.

Fine, he sighed. Then he would go at night.

And one evening, as the full moon illuminated his path, he crept into the greenhouse and watched as the Princess of France, the ROYAL Princess of France massacred a rat on the greenhouse table. A wicked smile splayed across her face as she cut away at the rat with a fine blade.

He should have been more afraid.

No.

He was rather afraid.

Yet, Finn found he could not look away. She carved the organs of the rat away from its body and placed them on individual glass dishes. She jotted notes on a small leatherbound book on the table. All of her movements were made with methodical precision.

Finn shuffled closer and closer to the table until, he was a hair's breadth away from the Princess.

"You are not frightened?" She asked, breaking the eerie silence. She remained focused on her work as she asked.

Finn jumped back. He had not been aware that she had noticed him. The Princess turned to face him. One one hand, she held a piece of matter that obviously was another rat organ. In the other hand, she held a pencil.

"Are you not afraid?" She asked again.

Finn shook his head. The Princess smiled and turned back to her work.

Finn observed her as she systematically sketched each , after some time had passed, (and he no longer felt awestruck) he cleared his throat and spoke.

"You don't actually like to garden." Finn said. He did not ask as, from what he could tell by looking at the plants actually in the room, very little gardening was done here.

"No." She replied absentmindedly. "Do you?"

"I do." He loved it. More than anything in the world.

"They will not let you in the gardens?" the Princess asked again.

"I am a houseboy." Finn had said as if though that explained everything. "My Pa was a criminal and my Ma was a nurse. My Ma wanted me to have a good job before she died. She asked Mr. Pepper to train me as her dying wish."

Mr. Pepper was the butler recommended by the young Queen Victoria for her brother's staff.

The Princess merely hummed.

"I am supposed to be growing those roses." She said to him, she extracted what looked to be the rats heart from its body and put it on a dish. She then pointed to the near wilting flowers at the edge of the greenhouse.

Just the sight of those flowers horrified Finn more than the Princess carving her way through the rat's corpse. The poor things were yellow and, if possible sickly looking. Finn rushed to them and checked the soil and the roots. They still held fast to the ground and would recover.

The Princess turned and watched as he fussed over the flowers and, an idea struck her.

"If you can, you should make them grow." She said suddenly.

Finns eyes widened. "Truly?"

"Oui, truly." She said.

And so, that is how Finn became the secret ally of Princess Boule De Gomme. She would let him play with all that he wanted in the greenhouse and, in exchange, he would be sent on the occasional errand.

For cow hearts.

Sheep stomachs.

Pig brains.

Once, he had been sent to a pond to find a frog.

The Princess dissected them all. Cataloguing all these parts in her journal and looking into books by old stody sounding men with names like Galen and Vesalius.

"Galen," Bonnibel explained, "is the father of modern medicine and he used animal parts, a lot like these to help us understand the human body. Vesalius actually dissected human bodies."

In her trunk, were not gardening tools. Instead she carried around glass instruments and an odd metal instrument that she often peered through.

"Is that one of those telescope things, your highness?"

"Call me Bonnibel, Monsieur Mertens. And it's a microscope. A telescope is used to peer at the heavens, at things we do not know. A microscope is used to see further into what we already do."

"If I have to call you Bonnibel," Finn had said, not listening to the rest of the speech, "then at the very least call me Finn, your highness."

This afternoon, Finn found Bonnibel was once again at her workstation. She sat reading her notes and tapping her foot on the ground. She was waiting for her cow heart. When she finally saw Finn appear, she quickly walked toward him.

"Hullo Bonnibel!" He yelled. He pulled the package from his coat and began waving it in the air.

Bonnibels eyes opened wide.

"Do not dare yell Finnian! And how dare you wave my cow heart?!" She snatched the package from his hand as she yelled at him.

Finnian watched as Bonnibel took the cows heart to her station and quickly began unwrapping it.

He sighed and headed to his own corner of the greenhouse.

"Merci." She muttered under her breath as she gazed in wonder at the cow heart. The organ was still warm. "How did you ever convince the butcher to give it to you so fresh?" She breathlessly asked.

"The coins you gave me earlier helped."

Bonnibel turned her head sharply in his direction. "Those coins were for you Finn."

Ahh, she called him Finn. She was no longer angry at him for yelling in the greenhouse.

"I don't need them Bonnibel." He pointed to a selection of pink roses. "You are letting me be what I have always wanted to be. I am more in your debt than you are in mine."

Bonnibel began to walk over to his roses. She saw an odd pastel colored rose. "Is this a new breed?" She asked while brushing her delicate fingertips over the petals.

Finn shrugged. "I crossed Chinese tea roses with a few of the seeds you had brought me this month past and this came out."

Bonnibel sniffed a bloom. "They smell lovely."

"They had better, you are about to butcher a cow heart in this greenhouse and contaminate the whole of the vicinity."

Bonnibel smiled and walked back to her station.

She had a cow heart to butcher and catalogue before the sun completely set.


AN: Neither "Adventure Time" nor, "Masterpiece Theatre" are owned by me. I simply use their characters and names as an exercise of writing and creativity. Also, please note that this story is not historically accurate, though an attempt to accurately portray history is certainly made. No offense is intended with any of the interpretations of the people discussed in this piece. I am neither British, nor French, so all language foibles and other je ne sais quoi are unintended. All feedback is appreciated and welcomed.